Sykesville, Md., military memorial a step closer to fruition

Sykesville, Md., is close to finishing its first phase of the military memorial, with around $8,000 of donations for the project, said Town Council President Frank Robert Jr.

The first phase of the project is raising money through donations and engraved bricks, which will be along a pathway between the Town House and E.W. Becks Restaurant, Robert said.

The town has two separate funds for donations - one for those who pay the $100 for an engraved brick, and another for those who donate toward the memorial. Donations to the town of Sykesville are tax deductible, according to the Sykesville website.

Robert said more than 40 bricks, or $4,000 has been raised thus far, and will continue to engrave bricks until it reaches around $10,000. Robert estimated between $3,000 and $4,000 has been donated to the fund without buying a brick.

"A lot of people in the military have done bricks for themselves, or for their sons (who have gone to war). Some people just want to do it for the history," Robert said.

Robert is ensuring the memorial is more than simply engraved bricks with names of donors by including 10 bricks of the most historic and influential people in Sykesville. Robert enlisted the curator of the Sykesville Gate House Museum, Mark Fraser, in order to find the most suitable residents to honor.

Fraser said he had a tough time picking just 10, but narrowed it down to 12 and had Robert choose between those. When picking influential residents, Fraser didn't have to work very hard.

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"I've been doing it for a little while and I just kind of know who they are. There are probably 15 I would say, who are very very vital to the history of Sykesville," Fraser said.

Among those are James Sykes, Millard Philmore, Wade Warfield, Gov. Frank Brown, Thelma Wimmer, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and the Dorsey, Shipley, Brown and Patterson families, Fraser said.

Main Street Manager Ivy Wells said adding a military memorial is appropriate for the town that is lucky enough to have a Town House near its Main Street.

"I think that it's a very nice gesture," Wells said.

Wells has been spreading the news about donating bricks through social media and word of mouth, she said. Robert said he has been to South Carroll Rotary Club, Messiah Lutheran Church and two different Lion's Clubs about the engraved bricks.

A memorial committee has worked closely with the American Legion's Sykesville Memorial Post No. 223 in the planning process, Robert said.

The project is two years in the making for Robert, who was walking through the Town House and floated the idea to the former town manager, Matt Candland. The idea continued to progress, and as time as gone on, the project has evolved with the landscaping and design.

"We wanted something that would be a destination to try to draw people out to Main Street," Robert said.

The cutoff for engraved bricks will likely be sometime in mid-February, he said.